Visualize your success!

As you work towards your goals, do you picture yourself the way you want to look? Do you see yourself as already fit and healthy, tight and toned? Visualize yourself as you want to be! Then make it happen! Your self confidence will receive a boost and your motivation will increase!

Sometimes it's hard to visualize exactly what your goals are in terms of diet and exercise. Sure, we all want to be "fit" and "sexy" but there is a whole spectrum of bodies that fall into those categories. Yesterday, as I flipped through a magazine with my friend, I pointed out a girl and said, "Now that's what I want to look like this summer!" and shockingly, my friend frowned and said, "Eeeww! She's so muscle-y!". Mind you, this wasn't a female body builder, but rather just a woman who obviously worked out consistently, and looked great in her swimsuit. It made me realize that we all have different goals in our heads when we're exercising, running, lifting, steaming vegetables....

With that in mind, I thought that it would be a good idea to create a visionary board of my goals to keep myself focused on what it is that I am working towards. Who do I want to emulate, what is my body capable of, and what kind of cute swimming suit do I picture myself wearing poolside in a few short months, er, weeks!?  Who are a few of your role models, what are a few of your goals, and motivational images? Maybe you could do the same yourself. Many people in the fitness/health industry even post their workouts and daily eating examples on their website or Facebook pages for you to see (and to keep themselves accountable). Try it! Wouldn't it be nice if you were able to pin a picture of YOURSELF on your board as a goal!?

What would be on YOUR board? Go ahead and visualize yourself the way you WANT to be!  Then achieve it!

Don't Settle for Less than God's Best for your Life!

Today in church, Bro. Tommy talked about Abraham, and how God told him that He would give him an heir. But when time passed and Sarah had not conceived, she and Abraham got impatient, and decided to "help God out", by having Abraham take Hagar for his mistress to have a son (Ishmael). But Ishmael was not the heir God had planned for Abraham, so he was destined to be a "wild man" with many enemies. 

How often do we get impatient on our journey, whether on our weight loss journey, or in a relationship, or maybe in our job?  We know what to do, what to eat, how to exercise, but when the immediate results don't appear quickly enough, what do we do?  Get discouraged and slack off?  Maybe quit altogether? Maybe we have the thought that "the scale is not moving, so I may as well eat whatever I want" or "I'm not losing weight, I may as well stop working out". 

If this is your attitude, you are settling for less than God's best for your life!  "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body," (1 Cor. 6:19-20).  When you think about that...Our body is the dwelling place of God!  He created us...What great care was given to its design! 

Do you remember the story of Esau trading his birthright to his brother Jacob...for what? For food!!!

One day, Esau returned home from an unsuccessful hunting trip totally famished, and demanded some stew from his brother. “I’ll give you food,” agreed Jacob, “but first, trade me your birthright.” Esau replied, “Okay, I’m so hungry, I’m about to die.” So Esau traded the honors due to him as the firstborn son for a simple meal of stew.

I cannot imagine selling my whole birthright for a pot of soup. BUT...when I look at my own life, I ask, “What great thing have I traded for so little in return? How often do I trade healthy food for junk food? What temporary pleasure have I craved so much that I gave up lasting victory?”  Each time I was settling for less than God's best for my life.

Desperation breeds defeat. Decide in advance what you will and will not eat each day! The best time to plan meals for me is right after breakfast when I’m feeling full and satisfied. The absolute worst time for me to decide what I’m going to eat is when I’ve waited until I’m tired and feeling hungry. Prepare a healthy snack to have on hand or keep in your purse during the day, and already have an idea of what you will be having that night for supper!

When you're  unprepared or you're rushed through a proper meal, your stomach screams for something quick. And quick options usually come in a variety of unhealthy temptations.... swinging through the drive thru, grabbing that chocolate bar or bag of chips. Make time each day to ... Decide to eat healthy today.  Preparation leads to success. Don't settle for LESS than God's best for your life!

 

 

The "other" reasons to exercise!

There are all sorts of official reasons why people should exercise and you can find those in any health magazine, website or book.  I am going to give you the "other" reasons to workout; the reasons that motivate most people:

1. Food ... I love food!  I love to eat! I love a good meal! I love a good snack! And I love healthy food and not so healthy food!  The more I workout means the more I can eat!
2. Time for You ... Your kids don't workout with you (usually).  On the days they are driving you the craziest, you will exercise harder and longer.  Even if they aren't driving you crazy, the break is wonderful!
3. Time with Friends ... Exercise with friends to motivate each other when one of you doesn't feel like working out.  The exercise is the added bonus! The visiting is our reason to get out.  We'll often meet for a workout when we don't feel like exercising, but want to visit!
4. Food ... Oh yea, I mentioned that one already!
5. Looking good ... Exercise helps to circulate your blood and oxygen.  People who exercise always have a glow to their skin.  Your hair will shine, and you will feel better about your body.
6. Food ... hmmm...how does that keep getting in there???
7. Feeling good ... When you look good, you will feel fabulous.  It's amazing how you can exercise away stress and problems.
8. Building self confidence & self esteem ... When you look good and feel good, your self-confidence is boosted!  Self-esteem is defined as "the experience of being capable of meeting life's challenges and being worthy of happiness."
9. Sleeping Less ... When you exercise and are in a routine, you need less sleep so you actually have more time for things; fun things!  And when you exercise, you sleep BETTER!
10. FOOD!

Don't Sweat The Numbers

Any Scale Addicts in the house? (***as I slowly raise my hand like a timid second grader***) And "Scale Avoiders"? (Done that too!) Both can be harmful if what that scale reads affects your motivation to keep going...or the lack of knowing what it reads, keeps you out of touch on how all that is going in your mouth is affecting your progress.

If your weight loss progress is too slow for what you see as "worth it", then you run the risk of throwing in the proverbial towel. It is so exciting in the beginning, right? The changes seem to come quickly! After starting a serious fitness program including cardio and weight training, nearly everyone feels better and more energetic almost immediately (aside from the perpetual soreness). But even after several weeks, some people do not see a noticeable change in the mirror, so far as fat is concerned. And the scale!!! OMG...you've busted your butt for weeks, and there's no change! Of course, if you've really been half-hearted about following your program, it's clear why this may happen, but it can also happen when you have honestly been experiencing intensity every day, and have been careful about limiting your portions. It's said, "The road to Easy Street runs through the sewer. You gotta get off the crapper to get to it. " Nice visual, huh?

There are reasons why it takes time. REAL reasons, not just the "It didn't come on over night, it's not going to go away over night" reasons.

Here's what's going on:

First, Fat is stored in several places, within the muscle
1. around the organs as "visceral fat"
2. under the skin as "subcutaneous fat".

If you're inactive as you get older, the fat starts depositing in the muscles first - the muscle tissue gets "marbelized".  Exercise (and specifically interval training and weight training) tends to draw significantly from the intramuscular stores early on, so instead of seeing a major change in the mirror, you may instead feel your muscles getting firmer and less "mushy". That's a good sign. Don't give up! The subcutaneous fat loss (that fat under the skin) that you can see becomes more evident once the intramuscular stores are whittled down a bit.

Second, if you've been using weights or resistence bands, you'll also be adding to muscle mass while you lose fat...and a "pumped" muscle is heavier. Regular exercise also increases blood volume, so the scale will be an awful measure of the improvements that are going on metabolically. It's ironic - cell volume, blood volume - exactly the things that will be helping you to get fit, can be the things that initially make you think you're making no progress.
Fat calipers are a better measure of progress, but even here, if you vary your pinching technique a little bit, you can get inaccurate readings on a day to day basis. Believe me, you're going to have nights when you look in the mirror and say "all this work, and I look the same", and mornings when you just can't believe the improvement. Don't base your enthusiasm about your fitness program on either of those short-term impressions. Do try to troubleshoot by periodically reviewing your diet, intensity, and variety, but stick with it!

IN GENERAL, the initial drop in the scale will probably understate your fat loss in the first few weeks. For very overweight people, the drop on the scale will probably exceed your fat loss. That's particularly true if your diet was very high in carbohydrates before you started. In very overweight individuals, even the increased muscle cell and blood volume is typically less than the initial loss in water weight. A lot of people seem to think that water loss is not "real" weight loss. Well, if your fat level stays the same, that's true. But your body's water retention is largely determined by its fat content. So if you lose the fat, the water stays off as well!                                                                  

Most people will see limited changes for the first five weeks or so while some, more because of significant differences in fluid-volume changes. That seems like an awfully long time to wait, but remember, fat doesn't "spot reduce" - it comes off in sheets, like an onion.  The upper body (shoulders, chest, upper abdominal area) generally shows improvement first. But expect that the areas you've always thought were "too fat" will still look too fat for a while, even though you feel good, look "healthier", and can gradually measure that your fat percentage is going down.                                                       

I think there is so much emphasis on what the scale says that we can lose our ball in the weeds. For most of us this journey and it's greatest achievement, is to add years to our lives and to make those years filled with enjoyment with the ones we love. Those are the best goals!!!                                           

 
If you were able to look inside your body and be able to see your cholesterol falling, your arteries clearing, your blood vessels becoming more efficient, your muscles strengthening, your bone-density improving, and all of the amazing changes that eating clean and working out triggers, it would be clear that the scale and measuring tape are just insufficient ways of measuring success. As these internal changes become greater, your external progress accelerates. Some people just start out needing more internal changes than others, because of their prior lifestyle, long-term yo-yo dieting, and other factors. Please understand that if you're following your daily workouts, and carefully limiting your portions, the progress is happening, whether it's obvious or not.

So don't sweat the numbers. They'll come. Here is your what I want you to do today: STICK to a winning pattern of action that you know will produce results if you follow it consistently. That's IT. And if you do that today, congratulate yourself as a winner. If instead, you insist on measuring your success by whether or not the scale or measuring tape show progress today, you're creating a game you can lose. My Daddy also use to say, "Don't put yourself in the position of trying to manage your consequences, rather than actions." You'll never get a reliable sense of confidence that way. Look, you're following a program that works. Do troubleshoot. Do review your workouts, food choices, portion sizes, and meal plans. But make every day a game you can win!

Don't Compare Yourself to Others

Have you ever thought, "I'll never be as skinny and/or proportionate as her"? Or what about, "no matter how much weight I lose, I'm always going to be bigger than her"?

Don’t ever let a comparison break you. We all know people who we view as “perfect.” The one who we wish we looked/spoke/thought/wrote/studied like. The person with the good grades, the long legs, the swaying hips. The girl who no matter what she wears, she looks great...even in sweats and a baggy T-shirt!  But you know what? I would bet my life that someone out there (probably LOTS of someones) look at you and think the same thing.

Listen for it. You’ll hear it in someone's voice. The wistful sound of them wishing they could be more like you. Hear it and remember you are someone else’s motivation. Let that motivate you to be the best you that you can be!